In telephony and other areas, user devices frequently include a “contact list”, which is a list of shortcuts or identifiers of other users to facilitate an easy connection to the users. For example, telephones typically include contact lists of potential called parties so that the calling party at the telephone can choose one of the contacts to initiate a telephone call to the corresponding called party without having to memorize and dial the telephone number of the called party. Similarly, instant messaging system devices have contact lists or buddy lists so that a user across a network can be contacted without having to know the user's network address or other identifying information.